THE ASTRONOMER Electronic Circular No 617 1992 Mar 07 16.10UT Ed:Guy M Hurst, 16,Westminster Close, Kempshott Rise, Basingstoke, Hants, RG22 4PP,England. Telephone/FAX(0256)471074 Int:+44256471074 Telex: 9312111261 Answerback: TA G JANET BOXES: GMH at UK.AC.CAM.ASTRONOMY.STARLINK or GUYH at UK.AC.SUSSEX.CLUSTER TELECOM GOLD: 10074:MIK2885 PRESTEL 256471074 ------------------------------------------------------------------- NOVA CYGNI 1992 B. Skiff, Lowell Observatory, reports that the field surrounding Nova Cyg 1992 is not crowded with stars, and that there is only one potential candidate for the nova's precursor readily visible on the Palomar Sky Survey prints. This candidate appears at mag about 18 on the blue print and about 17 on the red print. The average of the measurements of both prints yields the following position for equinox J2000.0 (epoch 1952 July 31.4 UT): R.A. = 20h30m31s.58, Decl. = +52 37'53".4; the corresponding B1950.0 position is R.A. = 20h29m07s.03, Decl. = +52 27'44".0. IAUC 5461 0.5 day means derived from an analysis of 227 visual estimates so far received: JD mean max min no. 671.5-6.80-6.8-6.8 1 672.0-6.00-6.0-6.0 1 672.5-5.40-5.3-5.5 2 673.0-5.08-5.0-5.3 6 673.5-4.67-4.3-4.9 14 674.0-4.57-4.3-4.9 7 674.5-4.42-4.2-4.6 11 675.0-4.43-4.2-4.6 3 675.5-4.48-4.3-4.7 11 676.0-4.65-4.6-4.7 2 676.5-4.58-4.2-4.8 23 677.0-4.60-4.4-4.9 4 677.5-4.55-4.2-4.7 13 678.0-4.73-4.6-5.0 4 678.5-4.91-4.7-5.2 12 679.0-4.73-4.6-4.8 4 679.5-4.86-4.4-5.2 13 680.0-4.75-4.6-4.9 4 680.5-4.88-4.6-5.1 17 681.0-4.88-4.7-5.1 5 681.5-5.02-4.6-5.2 12 682.0-5.10-5.1-5.1 1 682.5-5.31-4.9-5.6 16 683.0-5.40-5.4-5.4 1 683.5-5.53-5.1-5.8 10 684.0-5.75-5.4-6.1 2 684.5-5.70-5.6-5.8 3 685.0 0 685.5-5.76-5.3-6.3 12 686.0 0 686.5-5.75-5.7-5.8 7 687.0 0 687.5-5.98-5.4-6.4 5 Guy M Hurst